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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Catching up again, some of these may not be in chronological order, so the length of my nails varies.

This is Glitzology- Lemon Crush layered over Deborah Lippmann- Footloose. Lemon Crush is filled with different shapes and sizes of white glitter and bars and is scattered with tiny pieces of matte yellow glitter.

I only used one coat of Lemon Crush. Glitzology polishes are so condensed with glitter! I really like how this combination looked.

Here's a picture of it taken indoors without the flash.

Deborah Lippmann- Footloose was released as part of the Footloose collection in winter of 2011. This had a great formula. It's just a simple, staple red creme. Footloose was practically a one-coater, but I put on two out of habit.

Here it is with the flash.

Next up is Happy Hands- Banana Stand. I don't own many yellow polishes and I gravitated towards this one. It has green, yellow, and brown hex glitter of various sizes suspended in a yellow jelly base. This built up very well and needed three coats.

This had a wonderful formula and the glitter dispersed very well throughout my nails. It's the perfect shade of yellow!

Here's Banana Stand taken indoors with the flash. The color looks a lot different here.

Indoors without the flash

This is Polished Perfection- Fire Flower. I purchased this in a blog sale, and there were only a few of these made. I don't think this indie brand is selling polish any longer. Once I saw the label, I just had to have this one!

Fire Flower consists of orange, silver, and yellow huge flower glitters, small bars, and small orange glitter suspended in a shimmery orange jelly base. I was blown away with the formula on this! This was a bit sheer, which is characteristic of a jelly, but it built up nicely in three coats. I love how the flowers turned out. I wore this for FIVE DAYS. I used Seche Vite and Gelous to prolong it. I didn't want to remove it because it was so long-lasting, but I had tickets to a Penguins vs. Flyers game, and there was no way that I was wearing orange nail polish there.

Next is China Glaze- Electrify. This was released as part of their Spring 2012 Hunger Games collection. This was gorgeous, a glitterbomb for sure. It's filled with yellow and red glitter. I put on three coats of this and topped off with Gelous and Seche Vite for a smooth finish.

Indoors without the flash.

Crackle is one of my guilty pleasures. Many in the nail community are over it just because it was overdone in collection releases by many companies, but I just love how it turns out in a different pattern on every nail. When I saw Sally Hansen- Starburst I had to have it. The silver glitter in the crackle made it look so unique!

The black base in Starburst is jelly-like. I thought it was really neat out the glitter migrated with the crackle as it separated on my nails.

I layered it over China Glaze- Under the Boardwalk. This was taken indoors without the flash. Under the Boardwalk was released in China Glaze's 2012 Summer Neons collection. It's neon, and it has that jelly quality to it. It's a bright magenta. I only needed two coats of it.

Indoors with the flash

Here's ORLY- Purple Velvet. This one was released in the Fall 2009 Matte Couture collection. This had a nice formula and matte finish, but it wasn't purely matte. It had a satin-like quality. If you remember the finish of the ORLY Plastix collection, this would be right between those and a true matte.

Indoors without the flash. This applied in two smooth coats and the purple is reminiscent of an eggplant.

Indoors with the flash, you can see the subtle hint of shimmer this has. To the naked eye it looks like a flat color.

Last is Essie- Absolutely Shore. I didn't expect to love this as much as I did! It is a pale seafoam green. Coming out of the bottle it was a little sheer, but with three coats, it's a smooth-looking creme.

This was released as part of Essie's Summer 2011 Braziliant collection. The formula was so great also!!!

Friday, April 12, 2013

This next bulk post consists of all of the green manis I wore during the week of St. Patrick's Day. Green is my absolute favorite color, so I'm always psyched for St. Patrick's Day week, and it gives me a good excuse to wear greens! I probably have enough green polishes to wear one every day for a year, but I kept this to a week.

First up is Zoya- Vespa. This is by far my favorite from the Pixie Dust collection recently released in February. The finish on these is amazing!! I previously wore Chyna, which is the red from that collection, and Vespa has more of a gritty, sandy texture. I would describe this shade as a dark mint green.

The application was simple, and I could have gotten away with just two coats of this, but I added a third one just to make it more textured. The dry time wasn't too bad either. It was tacky for a little bit, and I hate not being about to use fast-dry topcoat. It took about a half hour to dry completely.

Indoors with the flash, the shade looks really different! The name is so fitting too. When I think of a Vespa, I think of those scooters that have the exact shade of green.

Indoors without the flash. You can see how much darker this looks in lower lighting. Removal of this was challenging in the sense that it was more difficult than a creme or shimmer finish, but not as difficult as a glitter. It was worth it though!

Pretty & Polished- Bubble Tea is stunning. I've been lemming this one for a while and finally caved in and bought it right before it was discontinued. It's a yellow green base filled with medium black hexes and small bits of yellow matte glitter giving it a slightly textured finish.

The base was more opaque than I thought it would be and this only required two coats for full coverage. I love how the black hexes look suspended in the base. I am a huge fan of bubble tea, so I just had to have this one.

Indoors with the flash. You can see in the bottle how the tiny pieces of glitter have a slight shimmer effect to them.

Indoors without the flash

Hare Polish- Asteroid Turf consists of medium pink hex glitter suspended in a kelly green jelly base. I just love this combination of colors. It's a jelly sandwich in a bottle.

Car picture! (I apologize this was before I cleaned up fully, I had to run to work before I could clean up) I thought that this showed the suspension of the glitter well.

Indoors without the flash. I believe I used three coats of this, but it can also be pulled off with two.

For St. Patrick's Day, I wore the combination of Candy Lacquer- Kiss Me I'm Irish layered over China Glaze- Running in Circles. The shades of glitter in Kiss Me I'm Irish match the Irish flag perfectly. There are various sizes of green, red, and white glitter in hexes and squares. There are also red and white hearts!

The glitter in this was so concentrated that it only needed one coat! I'm always impressed with Candy Lacquer's glitters.

Here's China Glaze- Running in Circles by itself indoors with the flash. I am wearing two coats of it. It is a beautiful emerald green shimmer. This was from the Cirque de Soleil collection released in December 2012.

Here it is indoors without the flash. It has that glassfleck type shimmer.

Here is ORLY- Monster Mash. This one blows me away! It has various sizes of prismatic green glitter suspended in a yellow-green jelly base! When I first started applying this, I was questioning if it could be worn alone because the first coat was so sheer. It built up nicely with three coats.

Monster Mash was released last summer in ORLY's Flash Glam FX collection, but repromoted around Halloween. I was so amazed with how many different colors flashed in the glitter and I couldn't stop staring at my nails.

Indoors with the flash, you can see what the yellow green jelly base looks like.

Indoors without the flash. I used the white glue base coat with this one and it peeled off easily in sheets. I imagine that this one would be a nightmare to remove the old-fashioned way.

This next combination was an unexpected success. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did! This is Nina Ultra Pro- Electric Slide layered over Venique- Ga-lashes Glow.

Nina Ultra Pro recently revamped their line and branding, and this shade stood out to me. A green neon jelly? It immediately caught my eye and I just had to have it. It was quite sheer and I recommend layering it over another shade. I used two coats of this. This mani was very long-lasting too!

Here's Venique- Ga-Lashes Glow taken indoors without the flash. I don't know much about Venique. I received this from a partner in a secret swap in one of my facebook groups. I think Venique is only sold at Cosmoprof, which I don't have a membership to. This came in a set with four minis. It's a lime green creme. It reminds me a lot of OPI- Who the Shrek Are You? It applied like butter in two thin coats and the finish was so smooth!

Indoors with the flash

Hockey fans, just for fun I wore this mani to an autograph signing and met James Neal. He signed this puck, and I held it wearing this combination. It looks so bright in the photo! Just thought I would share :)

Last is Funky Fingers- Pixy Dust. I picked this one up at 5Below. It's a green apple colored glassfleck shimmer. The first coat applied very sheer, and I was unsure if I would like it. It was another one of those shades that I had doubts about, but once the coats built up, I was surprised! It's absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me of Tinkerbell. This needed three coats.